There were ads for a while but they disappeared; I think it's been a year now that the ads left. What they had was quite comical; if you posted about the Great Lakes an ad would pop up for a firm with "Great Lakes" in its name. I used to get quite a few chuckles just looking at the ads.

Does the "new customer servcice system" mean there will be someone besides Maia to respond to customer service issues? I have nothing against Maia; she's a truly beautiful dog! However, I don't believe she was trained to resolve service isues!

I encourage everyone not to instantly jump on this as a bad thing and as a sign of BPL's impending demise.

It looks like BPL is getting ads supplied from Google. The way that it works is that both websites and advertisers sign up with google, and then Google "serves" ads to websites that seem like a good match. It would put an ad here based on the content of this site (ie. why REI ads show up) or it will put an add based on your recent search history with google (which is maybe why Yoplait came up).

So here's the upsides to this:1) Journalistic Integrity
Since neither BPL nor the advertisers have much say in which ads appear, there is essentially no pressure on BPL to modify their content to please advertisers. The ads might be a bit cheesy, but the disconnect between advertiser and the websites means that journalistic integrity stays intact. Theoretically an advertiser could request not to be shown on this site, but Google splashes their ads on thousands of pages across the web so BPL is just a drop in the bucket to say REI's advertising budget, and thus they'd never take the time to care even if BPL did a 6 part series on why REI sucks.

2) Higher Quality Content
This is the big one. If the head honcho's at BPL can actually make a few bucks of this site, they'll be far more motivated to work on it. The reality of life is that you can't spend all your time doing fun pro-bono stuff. After years of putting a lot of work into BPL and barely making anything in return, it gets tough to stay motivated and continue to provide high quality content. If BPL can actually make some coin on these ads, it will ultimately be reflected in the quality of the content.

As an anecdote, I created a small website back in 2008 and worked on it for fun for a couple years. After a while the novelty wore off and it became tough investing the same time when I was getting little out of it. Instead of cancelling the site after 3 years, I decided to try this same program to possibly cover the costs of running a site. As it turns out, I now make a few bucks on the site. It's nothing major, but it keeps me motivated to work on it knowing that there's some beer/gear money coming out of it.

"As a "M", I've contributed more, and will continue to do so, than a "MLife"."

You certainly have contributed more than me, as have folks like Dave Ure, who's also been a member much longer than I have.

Ryan is close hold with info about BPL (as is his right, no complaints), so I have no idea on how many impressions he'd accumulate if he made ads invisible to M'ers as well. If there would be few people left (negating putting the ads up in the first place), then I'd be all for not excluding anyone from the ads, including MLIFERs. From Cameron's pic the ads don't seem all that intrusive, so I wouldn't be bothered by it.

Of course, I'd just as soon see the MLIFE designation go away entirely. That doesn't mean I want to be charged again – that's one 'deal' that I'd prefer BPL not try to renege on, but I think, overall, the MLIFE thing became a minor disaster – it was more fodder for promises unfulfilled than anything else. I vote for closing down that part of BPL history and moving on. Let's just have M's and F's (I know, I"m an MFer, too easy).

In concert with that, 'full' members are members, same bennies for us all. I can see continuing to separate forum only members from the rest, but that's it. There's enough pitting one group against the other in the rest of our societal dealings (as chaff has been sadly pointing out a lot lately), let's get away from it, for the most part, in BPL.

No Jerry, My pocket. I was lured in by all the promises that were never delivered. Leaving me bitter. I jumped on the MLife . Scratch that. I was lied to, fell for it and now am ahead. RJ gets not a dime from me anymore. Now I feel better. Only took 5 years and a day.

Lately the google ads (on other sites) have been extraordinarily irritating, with lots of flashing and moving items. Gives me a headache, fast! If the ads are static, I have no problems if they want to inflict them on all of us. I'm seriously considering an ad blocker, though. Anyone have recommendations for a Mac?

Those who have been MLifers for 5 years (I'm not quite there yet) are now getting a free ride. For full disclosure, I did get mine from an anonymous donor, whom I'll thank again. I PIFed it and bought a life membership for another person, so BPL still got my money. I suspect I'm not the only one who has done this; I know there are other anonymous donors out there.

I don't see the ads since I have a M-Life. But I would not mind if the M-Life member screen showed the ads. I am a businessman and understand the need to generate income. Plus banner ads would be much preferable to what we had a while back.

@ Roger, what is a GFC?

Regarding the observation of, "Those who have been MLifers for 5 years (I'm not quite there yet) are now getting a free ride." I have to disagree with that. Ryan needed cash and the early M-Lifers funded that, which from what I understand, allowed him to buy out the other owners.

I wonder if the Idester were to log on as a guest, what would his random ads be… hmm.